Hip Hop Eh: Canadian rappers rhyme on guard for thee

Hip Hop Eh: New film shows Canadian rappers on their

Joe Klymkiw is the director of Hip Hop Eh, a new film about the life and sounds of Canadian rap artists. The director has been working on the film for five years and, to supplement his income, he also shoots interviews for Nardwuar, the Human Serviette. Although Drake doesn’t appear in his new movie, Klymkiw did watch Nardwuar interview Canada’s most popular rapper from behind the lens.

“I wish I would’ve been able to get him in the doc, but when I’m shooting for Nardwuar, I’m not trying to get any of my business involved,” says Klymkiw, 32, who adds that Drake’s not only nice, but exceedingly helpful — when Nardwuar said he wanted to interview Lil Wayne, Drake simply sent him a text.

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Plenty of other interviews, however, are included in Klymkiw’s timely documentary, from Maestro Fresh Wes to the Polaris Prize-nominated Cadence Weapon. According to Klymkiw, the notion of Canadian hip hop — something that used to be seen as a joke, but is increasingly growing in credibility thanks to the Internet and one Aubrey Graham — is a topic well worth a serious approach.
“I wanted to talk about Canada’s hip hop identity,” says Klymkiw, originally from Winnipeg. “In the movie, Odario from Grand Analog says that people hear a rap song and find out it’s Canadian and are like, ‘What? Canada does hip hop? What are you talking about?’ I wanted to see what that was like for the groups.”

Andy Bernstein is a 38-year-old rapper from Toronto who goes by Abdominal, and is well-known for his popular Hip Hop Karaoke shows. He started rapping in the mid-’90s, hot on the heels of Kardinal Offishall, and says label support and industry buzz are the only things Atlanta and New Orleans have over Vancouver and Toronto when it comes to rap scenes.

“There’s obviously a much bigger commercial infrastructure in place in those cities for this type of music, but that said, the Net has made one’s actual physical-geographical location less of a factor these days,” he says. “Also, I’m a firm believer that if your music is good enough, people will come to you regardless.”

Audiences are certainly coming around to all different stripes of Canadian music, from the crooning of The Weeknd to Deadmau5’s bleeps and blips. Hip hop, however, is a different animal and, according to Klymkiw, it’s difficult to spread a signature sound across a country so vast.

“It’s so hard to tour across the country and touch every city, but there’s a place for hip hop in Canada on the radio,” says the filmmaker, mentioning that Winnipeg has a dedicated rap radio station while the larger, more densely populated Vancouver does not. “I grew up listening to hip hop and once guys my age get to power in the media, maybe the radio will change.”

In the meantime, Canadian hip hop keeps growing and spreading, as artists both new and old subvert tired associations regarding Canadian rap.

According to Abdominal, Drake’s success doesn’t exactly change his own recording budget, but it’s nice to see someone from his hometown succeed.

“People, both in the biz and also just regular fans, may be more willing to give a record coming out of Canada a chance.”